Singapore President Calls for Deepening of Cultural Ties with India

·        Peranakan Exhibition Gets Underway at National Museum 

New Delhi, Feb 10: Singapore opened a window on the celebrated hybrid culture of Peranakan Chinese settlers by holding an exhibition for the first time in India at the National Museum here today with its President Dr. Tony Tan Keng Yam emphasizing the importance of holding such events to enhance and deepen bilateral ties.

 

Singapore President Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam lights the lamp, opening the Peranakan Exhibition at National Museum, Delhi, on feb 10. Left of him are Museum D-G Dr Venu Vasudevan and top bureaucrat Mr Raghav Chandra

“Such an exhibition promotes a better understanding of Singapore’s multi-racial communities and how they form the core of its identity,” Dr Tan said, while inaugurating the one-and-a-half-month-long exhibition, ‘The Peranakan World -- Cross-cultural Art of Singapore and the Straits of Malacca’.

Recalling the historical ties between Singapore and India, he noted that the two countries share administrative, and judicial systems even today. "India has a profound impact on the culture of Singapore," the President said, and revealed that the Southeast Asian country would be hosting an India culture festival this year and open an Indian Heritage Centre as well.

The Peranakan exhibition is part of President Tan’s first state visit to India to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. He was accompanied by Ms. Grace Fu, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs; Mr. Lawrence Wong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, and Mrs. Rosa Daniel, Chief Executive Officer, National Heritage Board, Singapore.

The Peranakan Chinese are descendants of southern Chinese traders who settled in Southeast Asia and married local women. Their culture is rooted in Chinese traditions, but with strong influences from Southeast Asia and Europe.  Peranakan art in this exhibition reflects the diverse influences of Indian, Chinese, Malay and European cultures that were fused into a distinctive style.

 

Singapore President, Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam signing
 the Visitor's Book after inaugurating the Peranakan Exhibition
at National Museum, Delhi, 

In her address, Mrs. Rosa Daniel, Deputy Secretary for Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, said this is the first exhibition from Singapore in India which presents a wonderful array of Peranakan objects: textiles, costumes, jewellery, beadwork, colourful porcelain and opulent furniture. Many of these objects fuse forms and techniques from different cultures: Chinese, Indian, Malay and European.

 Elaborating, she said the characteristic of the sarong has its source in India: printed cotton textiles from Gujarat and the Coromandel Coast were exported to the Malay world, which inspired Batik versions made by Peranakans and the other ethnic groups in Southeast Asia.

National Museum Director-General Dr. Venu Vasudevan said the exhibition would signal the "beginning of an enduring relation" between National Museum and museums of Singapore. "The exhibition was mounted in a record time, which is a testimony to the deep and multi-layered ties between the two countries," he added.

Mr Raghav Chandra, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor, Union Ministry of Culture, also spoke at the function, which was attended, among others, by Mrs Tan, the wife of the Singapore President.

With 122 objects from the 1912-founded Peranakan Museum, supplemented by loans from collectors in Singapore, the exhibition, which runs through March 25, gives a fascinating account of how Chinese immigrants married locally, developed new hybrid forms, and created a unique culture in their new homes in Southeast Asia.

The objects at the exhibition date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries and depict four themes: Chinese sources; influences from the Malay world and the Indian Ocean; the response to Europe; and the role of Peranakans in shaping modern Southeast Asia.

The first major exhibition of Indian antiquities in Singapore that was held in 1994 at Asian Civilisations Museum. As many as 330 artefacts from The National Museum, Delhi were displayed in “Alamkara: 5000 years of India”, which saw a record 165,000 visitors.

Dr Alan Chong, Director of the Asian Civilisations and Peranakan Museum, said, “Peranakan art is an important example of multi-cultural exchange. Many of the textiles, porcelain and beadwork in the exhibition are unmistakably Peranakan, yet can trace sources to India, the Malay world, Europe and China. The exhibition also strengthens the idea that culture is shared. Port cities like Singapore have been formed by centuries of trade, immigration and colonial rule.”

For instance, the sarong kebaya originated in the mixed communities of Goa and Sri Lanka and then travelled to Southeast Asia. Indian cotton was used as clothing and inspired and developed in Southeast Asia batik. Furniture design was similarly shared in the Coromandel Coast, Sri Lanka and Java.

A major component of the exhibition is the Peranakan jewellery. For Peranakans, jewellery is an important cultural marker, a treasured heirloom, an indicator of social standing, and often part of a bride’s dowry.

A gold belt buckle, a kerosang (made of gold and diamonds), a cotton altar cloth bearing dragon motifs and inscriptions, portraits for ancestor veneration, and a flower basket wedding bed hanging are among the other fascinating art objects on display. 

The exhibition also showcases the Chinese porcelain specially made for Peranakan patrons. Peranakan porcelain, called “nyonyaware”, is characterised by vivid, contrasting colours. Buddhist emblems, mythical beasts, and flowers and birds, often within lobed panels, animate the surfaces.